title: Effects of Aging on Kidney Graft Function, Oxidative Stress and Gene Expression after Kidney Transplantation.
abstract: Conflicting results have been reported regarding the effects of donor age, recipient age and donor-recipient age difference on short- and long-term outcomes after kidney transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of recipient age on graft function, oxidative stress, and gene expression after renal transplantation. Fifty male Fischer 344 rats [25 young (Y, 4 months), 25 senior (S, 16 months)] were randomized to 6 groups: 2 sham groups (Y and S, n = 5 in each group) and 4 renal transplant groups[young-to-young (Y-Y), young-to-senior (Y-S), senior-to-young (S-Y), senior-to-senior (S-S), (n = 10 in each group)]. The left kidneys were transplanted from donor to recipient. After 12 weeks, systematic blood pressure, graft weight, graft function, histology and oxidative stress were measured. Microarray analysis and quantitative real-time PCR confirmation were performed to study gene expression in the grafts. There were no differences in renal graft function between young and senior kidney cross-transplantation. Transplanted kidneys showed no significant differences in glomerulosclerosis index compared to non-transplanted kidneys but had significantly different tubulointerstitium scores compared to age-matched controls. Senior rats had lower SOD activity and higher MDA content than young rats. SOD activity was significantly lower and MDA content significantly higher in the Y-S group than in the Y-Y group. There were 548 transcript differences between senior and young kidneys with 36 upregulated and 512 downregulated transcripts. There were 492 transcript differences between Y-S and Y-Y groups with 127 upregulated and 365 downregulated transcripts. There were 1244 transcript differences between the S-Y and S-S groups with 680 upregulated and 574 downregulated transcripts. Oxidative stress and gene expression profile was significantly different in the Y-S compared to the S-Y group. The identified differences were mainly in the MAPK and insulin signal pathways, making these potential targets for therapeutic intervention.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Kidney Disease, Department of Nephrology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Xiangmei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ribao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Suozhu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Linlin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yuansheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006085:Graft Survival; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic